The whole team has struggled and Zack is no exception. Last season he had 201 hits in 79 games. This season? 72 hits in 43 games. We have rarely gotten any kind of a spark from our bottom 6 this season and IMO Zack has looked a little too comfortable out there at times like he has forgotten his role on the team since putting pen to paper.

Though I'm tempted to say a part of it might be down to his linemates. For the first half of last season he was with Letestu and Hendricks, and that was a line that loved to chip the puck deep and go get it (especially him and Hendricks). Now you've got him playing with Cammy and Letestu, not really a line looks to go out and cycle.

Though Zack's had his moments playing with Khaira and even Slepyshev this year. I think those arw a couple combos the team should look to bounce back to.

To me there are two tiers/groups of the "big forwards" on the team.

Maroon, Khaira, Kassian, and Lucic are in one group, and they need another big body on their line to be effective. Putting them with a RNH and Eberle, or McDavid and Yamamoto, or even Caggiula and Letestu is just asking for an ineffective line.

The other are the big bodies that can cycle but look to play a skill game: Draisaitl, Puljujarvi and Slepyshev. They're the few that can mesh with with both the skill and cycle guys.

No excuse for it, don't care if Todd crippled him or not when your teammate, especially Captain is getting manhandled all over the ice you ****ing step in, drop the gloves, throw some hits...Zero passion from him and the rest of the team really.
And on the bench afterwards "Not my problem" I hope that wasn't in reference to him not stepping in. If so then there's some serious problems in the dressing room or elsewhere in this organization. Crap like this makes me concerned we'll lose McDavid if something big doesn't change or if they repeat this season's failure.

Might be a bit of a stretch but it kind of makes me wonder if his past substance abuse issues and his aggressive style of play kind of go hand and hand? Maybe he can't have one without the other, so he's trying to tone it down? Although.. he's supposed to have been clean the entire time he's been with the Oilers.. and he was 'crazy eyes Zack' for awhile with us.. so maybe not.

I really liked him last year. I thought he was one of their most consistent wingers. This year, hes mainly just been ineffective and hardly noticeable. I'd give him another year, the whole team has been dysfunctional, but not a good sign for Kass.

Just think how many thought his contract was a steal in the summer. one year in and we’re paying him 2 million dollars to be a non entity on our 4th line for the next 2 seasons after this one.

The rest of the team for the most part at least seems like they are trying most of the time. They might suck, but at least you’re probably going to get an honest effort. Not sure we’ve seen that out of Kassian for more than 10 games this season, if that.

Just think how many thought his contract was a steal in the summer. one year in and we’re paying him 2 million dollars to be a non entity on our 4th line for the next 2 seasons after this one.

The rest of the team for the most part at least seems like they are trying most of the time. They might suck, but at least you’re probably going to get an honest effort. Not sure we’ve seen that out of Kassian for more than 10 games this season, if that.

Click to expand...

Like a few other players he raised his game in the playoffs and people expected that to be the norm for him.

I was always cautious regarding this player. You don't have the issues he's had without some risk of recurrence or the guy just being an escapist flake. You go year to year with someone like this because they require that continual motivation.

Kass fooled the Oilers for one season, won the lottery, now he's back to doing jack****. With or without substance issues the guy is useless. He's got considerable baggage, plays in a sport where everybody know's he's a joke and the big problem with sobriety is you start acknowledging all the wrong crazy **** you used to do. That's the real weird time of sobriety when you realize that you are a complete jackass, have been, and that you have to come to terms with that.

This is the paradox double edge sword of an out of control ex alcoholic, substance abuser, that found it easy to be crazy on the ice when he was half crazed himself. (Simply put, but I could go into more detail. ) The trouble is you remove some of that crazy, the lifestyle issues, and the same guy starts dialing it down because they are not the same person that did crazy ****. You probably all know someone like that. Life of the party but alone are the death of themselves.

Think about Ozzy Osbourne sober and you kind of get the picture. At least when he was drunk and high all the time it kind of explains the slurred speech and stumbling and random antics. When you get sober its depressing because all the deleterious **** is just real. its not temporary, its not due to being high, its what you are now and its never getting better. You're not the same, you feel embarrassed to pull the same crap.

Its a common enough dynamic. Just that you don't see it a lot in pro sports as the substance issues are often masked and or persist throughout the playing career. The worst thing is that Kass will never be what he was without having all the related issues and baggage. He's now trying to be a player that he just isn't. He's trying and thinking of being a skill player. When he does that it just makes it worse because he's more out of his element.

The difficulty for someone like Kass is that according to biographical info he used to be just a very nice youth, kid, ever respectful, even listen to his voice. When people here his voice for the first time they get shocked. Its mild mannered, the complete opposite of his pro sports incarnation. So that Kass is not an inate ahole. He only became that through substance abuse. As soon as that tap turns off the person reverts to something they were before, or tries to. Its different for people that were always aholes and don't need any drugs to be one.

ps these are not excuses, please don't read it that way, I'm just describing what often occurs.

Next, George Laraque story. In short a guy that got to the NHL by being the meanest toughest hombre that could knock somebodies head off with a punch. A guy that would fight a lot to get to the show. But at some point George became uncomfortable with the role, reflected a lot on the damage he was doing, started to be more and more a gentleman fighter only going if the other guy accepted going and pretty much saying **** like "are you sure"?

George got to the point where his discomfort with the role increased so much that the Oilers, and George were trying to make him into a player. Given a choice he didn't want to fight anymore. George was a great guy, perfect gentleman, and had a heart and a conscience. At some point he couldn't live in his skin doing things the same ways. Not that he was trying to avoid his job, or not being a hard worker. George would haul the Zamboni around the ice if the engine wasn't running.

George was sober, to my knowledge wasn't somebody with substance issues but at one point he had a huge chip on his shoulder, even some hate, and fighting was an outlet for that. When George continued to be a healthy person, and with NHL salary, less issues, concerns, he lost the edge, he became a different person. You could pretty much drag that bull to the ring and he didn't want to go anymore. It wasn't who he was anymore.

I just post this because theres a bit of parallels in all NHL toughs that one day find themselves. Lucic might be experiencing some of this as well. Its harder and harder for Lucic to get angry and it happens less often. Its hard even for the toughest, meanest, gunslingers to keep firing that gun. Its the Billy the Kid type syndrome. You reach a point where you'd rather get shot because you can't do it anymore.

This is one of the reasons why I wouldn't mind Maroon coming back on a good contract. He meshed well with Mcdavid and always stuck up for teammates. We just can't have our top 2 LW's be Maroon and Lucic. What we could try is moving Maroon to the RW with RNH-Mcdavid. You have speed and Maroon will have a better shooting option on his off wing.

No excuse for it, don't care if Todd crippled him or not when your teammate, especially Captain is getting manhandled all over the ice you ****ing step in, drop the gloves, throw some hits...Zero passion from him and the rest of the team really.
And on the bench afterwards "Not my problem" I hope that wasn't in reference to him not stepping in. If so then there's some serious problems in the dressing room or elsewhere in this organization. Crap like this makes me concerned we'll lose McDavid if something big doesn't change or if they repeat this season's failure.

No excuse for it, don't care if Todd crippled him or not when your teammate, especially Captain is getting manhandled all over the ice you ****ing step in, drop the gloves, throw some hits...Zero passion from him and the rest of the team really.
And on the bench afterwards "Not my problem" I hope that wasn't in reference to him not stepping in. If so then there's some serious problems in the dressing room or elsewhere in this organization. Crap like this makes me concerned we'll lose McDavid if something big doesn't change or if they repeat this season's failure.

Click to expand...

Just for clarity I sure hope Kass wasn't saying something like that. The discussion was around it not being his line, and that he just apparently felt he could skate to the bench while two stars on this team were getting pummelled. It just looked like he was mentally saying not my problem. His actions stated that. He just skated off.

I'll mention in this thread as well that the Flames telecast (which we were all forced to watch, I feel, dirty, yuck, blech, ) stated that they were DISGUSTED in Kassians lack of standing up there. They even dropped an F-bomb. They said it was a joke, pathetic, and I completed agreed with every word.

I mean picture it, this is a Calgary Flames telecast that actually stated that Kass should've picked some flame and start pounding. That's how bad this inaction was that a Flame telecast expected Kass to bring it. They stated that 10,15, 20 yrs ago what happened on the ice to McD and Nuge would have resulted in a BOA war on ice. Again they were right in every respect.

This Chia lineup is so pathetic in every way. Back to the standing by the bus stop meme.

I’m willing to give Kass one more season to turn things around and bounce back but wouldn’t be too upset if he gets moved at this point. This isn’t the same player or person as he was prior to his contract.